Solidarity Yet Strange | Political Satire Based On Democratic India

In this land of diversity, solidarity is a rarity. This is obvious because you don’t always expect everyone to agree on something or share a common interest. Even within our peer group or our family, we don’t agree on every damn thing. Each one of us has our reservations, our likes, our dislikes, our ego’s, our perceptions, our perspectives, our reasons, and a hell lot of filters before we form our opinion on anything. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence when you have over a billion people hailing from different religions, races, social status, etc. But amidst this strong diversity, there is a strange solidarity shared between arch rivals.

BJP and Congress:

Take for instance BJP and Congress. These two are the major political parties in this country. They seldom agree on anything. Either of them always looks out for the opportunity to pin down the other in any way possible. But strangely when the FCRA ( Foreign Contribution Regulation Act ) was raised in the parliament, both the parties winked at each other and exempted themselves of scrutiny from foreign funding. There was no debate on FCRA in the Lok Sabha. It is obvious that a subtlety was submerged in this solidarity.

So now no one can know where these political parties received their funds from and which foreign enterprise is funding them. If an Indian enterprise diverts their money through a series of shell companies and put piles and piles of currency notes in the pocket of a political party for his/her personal interest, it will be seen as if an anonymous foreign enterprise is funding the political party.

(Source: The Hindu, March 15th, 2018)

BJP and PDP:

When it comes to power, ideologies can be silently brushed under the carpet. This proved to be true when the BJP and PDP formed an alliance to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir. Though this coalition government ended, the facts shouldn’t be sidelined. The BJP is perceived as a hard-core right-wing ideology with glimpses of intolerance and secularism. The People’s Democratic party of Jammu and Kashmir, on the other hand, is a firm believer of self-rule. This strange dichotomy somehow managed to join hands with each other before pointing fingers at each other’s off late. This solidarity of two completely opposite ideologies shows either party’s hunger for power.

BJP and Coalition:

Get over the BJP and PDP. Ever thought of a coalition between BJP and Congress? I assume you might not have dreamt about it even in your wildest dreams. Though as national parties these two parties often draw swords at each other in verbal battlegrounds and in mudslinging allegation brawls, the political weather of Mizoram says a completely different story. Congress and BJP together fight the elections against the MNF in Chakma for the autonomous district council. (Source: Hindustan Times, May 2nd, 2018, Sadiq Naqvi)

However, the BJP Congress alliance in Mizoram is not the only BJP-Congress alliance. The Umraga Panchayat Samiti in Osmanabad district also got to witness a BJP-Congress alliance. Even in Hatkanangle taluka of Kolhapur district, BJP and Congress joined hands. It is strange as in the national level, they give slogans to wipe off the other’s ideology in the country but when in need their bitter relations turn buttery. What surreal solidarity we get to witness! (Source: Times of India, March 16, 2017, Radheshyam Jadhav)

Conclusion:

Every religion claims their religion to be pure and pious. Some religious leaders even go overboard and proclaim their religion is the best in the world. So for this supremacy thing, religious leaders have this disdain for other religions. They might not express it openly. But come on, whom are we fooling. They hardly have the same opinion and disagree on almost everything. Yet when it comes to the rights of the LGBT community or same-sex marriages, all these religious figures sing the same song.

They are united there in telling that the phenomena of gays are against nature. We even get to hear few absurd statements by these middlemen of religion such as gays needed to be treated to make them straight. For these religious middlemen something like alcoholism and being gay fall under the same bracket as they proposed they would cure gay people in rehabilitation centers. Here all the religions agree on the absurdity of this kind. This is where they are united. Wish I had a bigger hand to cover my face during facepalm!

Since we’ve already discussed a topic as dicey as religion let’s dig into it a bit deeper. As already mentioned every religion proclaims to be the pure and pious one without any regard for the other religions. But in a cruel coincidence, almost all these religions share a common interest. Be it the murky myths surfacing around masturbation, silencing any questions towards religion, religious beliefs and practices and many more. In all these aspects all the religions silently share a sour solidarity.

Not only in these aspects but also in various lifestyle choices such as premarital sex, the female dress code by religious patriarchs, all receive flak from these religious middlemen who otherwise don’t agree with the middleman from other religion. Because of such persnickety people, we still can’t emphasize on topics such as sex education for children.

It is not often that we see people who are people who usually abhor each other actually adored the other with open arms. Now whether this is for their greater good or for their profitable gains is a debatable topic. But one can not get over the fact that such a solidarity is no more a fantasy and a reality